Kings' Marvin Bagley defends Harrison Barnes over NBA Finals criticism

It wasn’t the greatest performance by any stretch of the imagination.

Harrison Barnes, then the starting small forward for the Warriors, put together a few disastrous outings in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, particularly in Warriors’ losses in Games 5 and 7.

During the re-air of those games last week on ESPN, Barnes became a Twitter trend due to how many people were criticizing the forward’s performance.

One person who came to his defense was Kings teammate Marvin Bagley.

https://twitter.com/MB3FIVE/status/1245557053512232963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Barnes went 2-for-14 from the field and scored just five points in that Game 5, and he proceeded to score just 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting in Game 7.

Listen and subscribe to the Purple Talk Podcast:

Golden State replaced Barnes with Kevin Durant that offseason, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Barnes spent almost three seasons with the Dallas Mavericks after signing in free agency, before coming over to Sacramento in a midseason trade in 2019. The forward signed a lucrative four-year extension with the Kings in July, and was averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 rebounds prior to the NBA’s coronavirus suspension in March.

[RELATED: Ranking Kings' five best NBA draft lottery picks since 1990]

The criticism only added to what was a rough week for Barnes on social media. He also took a beating in the NBA 2K Players Tournament from Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young.

Contact Us